Crew's birth story

To say I was ready to have Crew is the biggest understatement. I was tired, feeling huge, in pain, and I was done! I was super lucky with Nixon because he came out on his own at 38 weeks without even trying! Once I hit 38 weeks with Crew, I wasn't sure what to do with myself. I had never had to go that far before!

I had gone to the doctor and he was saying things were progressing and that more than likely I was going to have the baby "any day now." Well, the night before my induction day was here and still nothing. I was getting everything put together, packing our bags and a bag for Nixon to stay and Grammy and Pa's when I get a call. I was going in that night because they wanted to put me on Cervidil (to soften the cervix) and then I would be put on Pitocin the next morning. It was the hospital. Dread filled me. They were pushing me back! My sister had had this happen with all of her inductions and now it was happening to me! I couldn't have another night like I had the night before!

As they were talking to me, they said there wasn't any room that night, but that I didn't really need the Cervidil because I was already dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced. They told me they would still take me in the morning to start the Pitocin. I was so relieved. We spent the rest of that night getting things put together (because Heaven knows I didn't have one packed earlier.)

We woke up the next morning, Sarah came to our house to stay with Nixon, and we headed to the hospital (luckily it's literally right around the corner). We checked in at 6:35 a.m. and made it up to our room. The hospital is actually amazing because you labor, deliver, and recover all in one sweet, so once we were in our room, that's where we stayed. One thing really bothered me though. They wouldn't allow pictures to be taken during the birth. I was kind of in shock, because I had never heard of that before and had planned on pictures (thankfully I didn't pay someone to come!). They got me all dressed, hooked up to the monitors and put in my IV's. The IV was a little bit of a struggle, which was new to me. I've always been told I have great veins, but this girl was new to the hospital (only had been there two months) and struggled to get an IV into my perfect veins. She tried once, and it didn't work (and actually hurt) so she took it out and blood went all over. She then tried again and while it wasn't painless, she got it in. So we were set.

They started the Pitocin at 8:10 a.m., and broke my water at 9:00 a.m. It was a little embarrassing because when the doctor broke my water, he said, "WOW." I didn't know how to take that. Evidently I had a lot of fluid and it just kept coming. I would dare said I had over a gallon of fluid come out (I love birth, it's so glamorous..).

Time went on and contractions were getting strong and stronger. I really try to hold off as long as I can with the epidural, but I realized it was going to take a while for the anesthesiologist to get there so I called for it. It took a little bit for them to get there, and I got my epidural at 11:30. From there is was a waiting game.

The doctor came in at 12:30 p.m. to check and I was dilated to a 5 and was at 80% effaced. More resting more waiting. More Ethan taking video (oh Heavens..). A little after he checked I started feeling some contractions, not painful, but I could feel them. I thought it was kind of odd, but I didn't worry too much about it.

2:10 p.m. the doctor came back in and I was dilated between a 7 and 8 and was 90% effaced. I was really feeling the contractions now which I knew wasn't right. No matter how much I pushed the button, I wasn't getting any relief from the contractions (that's why I got the epidural, I didn't want to feel them!). They called the anesthesiologist back in and he gave me a stronger dosage which did the trick!

At 3:00 p.m. the nurse came in to check and I was completely dilated and 100% effaced and it was go time. What? I'm not ready yet, seriously? I don't feel any pain! This was so different from Nixon's birth. They started getting the room set up and getting things together for the delivery. They wanted me to do a few "practice pushes" to make sure I did everything correctly. I did a couple practices pushes and then everyone started telling me to stop pushing! I was kind of surprised, but they said not to push anymore because the baby's head was right there and we needed to wait for the doctor to start pushing for real. The doctor came in the room about 3:40 p.m. and I pushed once. He told me to stop (why does everyone keep telling me to stop? Aren't we trying to get him out???). He told me to push one more time but not so hard because he had broad shoulders and the doctor wanted to get him out with minimal tearing (thank you!). And with that second push, at 3:47 pm, we had ourselves a healthy 8 lb. 11 oz, 20 3/4 in. baby boy!

The whole thing was kind of surreal when it happened. With Nixon, my epidural had run out almost an hour before I had him so there was a lot of pain, emotion and exhaustion, but with Crew, I basically pushed twice, with no pain and was almost laughing after he was out. I was in shock how easy it had been!